hi,
looking for a new pc (probably laptop for convenience, moving inside the house) to develop Rack plugin (and in general make software, as its my main job) and music production as well.
windows (so no mac). i’ve an external audio card (usb-3). and need to link 2 external screens.
curious about your actual machines 
what do you use to build Rack plugin?
happy participating!
If you insist on a laptop and plan to run VCV Rack, then I strongly encourage you to consider an ARM based apple laptop.
Currently I do all my plugin development on my Windows desktop. But for running VCV on a laptop I use an M1 MacBook Air.
I was a diehard Windows user for 30+ years - I never touched Apple. But the M1 machines are truly gamechangers. I am thrilled with my M1 MacBook Air. It outperforms my more expensive desktop from the same era.
The ARM laptops are powerful, extremely quiet (silent if no fan like mine), and have long battery life - all important to running VCV. The MacBook Airs are downright cheap for what you get. If you insist on WIndows then you will spend significantly more and still end up with an inferior machine.
Based on what I have read, the Apple laptops also have the highest reliability. For me the MacBook Air has operated flawlessly from day one, and I have had it for a couple years now. I definitely can’t say that about my Windows desktop.
hello, i ask this a time ago because of playing bigger patches. i do not develop. i’ve been satisfied with amd ryzen 7 and 16Mb ram, but you definitely need a graphiccard. i do not have one, only onboard. this is absolutely not enough. the cpu power is enough. a gamer graphiccard of minimum midclass is neccessary i think. my next laptop will come out of this class. it will be expensive, up 1500€ minimum. btw: i use linux ubuntu studio.
Right now I’m using a HUAWEI MateBook 16s, which seems a BOMB also on compiling (but its not mine, I need to return in few weeks). But it cost 1800€+ 
for vcvrack the graphic power is very important. modern cpu are capable of running vcvrack smoothly. my opinion…
i just look up your laptop and i think the cpu power is huge! but iris graphic is not enough. i read about it, thst it has poor gpu power for demanding tasks.and vcvrack IS graphical demanding.
You don’t need great gpu, you just need ok gpu. A ten year old gaming card is fine.
Yes, agree 100%. Apple intel laptops were terrible, any arm laptop is great. Windows aptops is a real crap shoot. Some gaming ones are ok? Go apple.
which model do you suggest? looking at the eshop, they cost WAY too much. also: could i install later Windows 11 over it without fix and workarounds, in case? i know in the paste was a pain…
im really a no-apple-fanboy haha
I’m not either. I don’t even have an Apple phone. But their laptops are way better than the competition. Imao.
When I’m traveling, I use a Surface Book for dev and running Rack (inherited from my job - I wouldn’t buy one now). At home I have a rediculously capable Windows workstation from SilentPC, but with a basic graphics card so that it can run fanless most of the time. No issue with Rack on either, but I’m not running huge patches.
i’ve been only using an ROG Zephyrus G15 gaming laptop as my gaming and general-use daily driver for the last few years, and have done all of my Rack development with it. works great for me.
I have an Asus laptop with discrete graphics that works great. You need to tell Windows to use the discrete graphics for rack. Intel chips IIRC have the best architecture for multithreading, unless more recent AMD chips have changed. Not sure how threading works on the Apple M chips.
huh, weird. i never had to do any fiddling to get Rack working on my laptop.
If you develop on a machine with super-fast bleeding edge technology, can that lead to unreasonable expectations of how it will perform on a typical user’s average hardware?
MacBook Air M1 works great here too. ARM for mobile wins, not going back to Intel again.
How is the M1/M2/M3 threading performance?
That’s what intel’s actually good at, threads & multiple cores.
My laptop supports switching between discrete graphics for performance and the builtin Intel graphics. A program like Rack taxes the graphics chip, so you have to tell the OS to use the discrete graphics.
no. Just make sure your performance is comparable to the “competition” and you are fine.
Funny, I’ve been hearing a lot lately that VCV doesn’t work well with more than one core for audio. Maybe it’s an arm thing?